Obscure Berrypecker

SCI Name:  Melanocharis arfakiana
Protonym:  Dicaeum arfakianum NotesLeydenMus. 22 p.70
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Melanocharitidae / Melanocharis
Taxonomy Code:  obsber1
Type Locality:  Arfak Mountains, New Guinea.
Author:  Finsch
Publish Year:  1900
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

MELANOCHARIS
(Melanocharitidae; Ϯ Black Berrypecker M. nigra) Gr. μελας melas, μελανος melanos  black; χαρις kharis, χαριτος kharitos  beauty  < χαιρω khairō  to rejoice; "Melanocharis nigra, Less., sp.  Dicæum nigrum, Less. Voy. Coq. i. p. 673; Cent. Zool. pl. 27; Müll. Verh. Ethn. p. 162.  Havre Dorey (Less.); Lobo (Müll.)  Mus. Lugd.   Müller and Schlegel say this bird is not a Dicæum, but a Muscicapine, allied to Boie's genus Hylocharis (since changed to Hyloterpe). It does not seem to me to be referable to either of these genera, but, as far as external appearances go, to be more nearly akin to Dicæum than Hyloterpe.  I have therefore used for it the new generic term Melanocharis (μελας, niger, et χαρις, gratia)." (P. Sclater 1858); "Melanocharis Sclater, 1858, Journ. Proc. Linn. Soc. London, Zool., 2, p. 157. Type, by monotypy, Dicaeum niger Lesson." (Salomonsen in Peters 1967, XII, 167).
Var. Merlanocharis.
Synon. Neneba, Pristorhamphus, Sarganura, Urocharis.

arfaki / arfakiana / arfakianum / arfakianus
Arfak Mts., New Guinea.